[opensuse] openSuSE Kernel Change that effects Wireless Install ??? (Atheros AR242x will not work)
Guys, I need a miracle! I have probably installed the madwifi driver at least 10 time on my laptop on SuSE 10.2 through 11.2, but after a new 11.0 install, I am unable to find a madwifi driver that will install and "stay" installed. The funny thing is that the madwifi driver has no problems on the same box when installed on Arch Linux. Even more perplexing, I still have the 11.0 rpms that 'I WAS USING ON THIS BOX' that no longer no longer work, so I know the difficulty is something openSuSE specific with the latest kernel or two. I say that, because the existing drivers I have -- have always worked when I installed them with the original kernel and then updated through each successive kernel. Now, jumping from 2.6.25.5-1.1 to 2.6.25.20-0.5 in one step has left 11.0 in a condition where it will not load the driver properly. I have built and installed from the driver for the following sources all of which worked on this box in the past: madwifi-0.9.4-1.src.rpm # The standard 0.9.4-1 driver madwifi-0.9.4-1-current.src.rpm # The standard 0.9.4-1 driver with the madwifi-project suggested snapshot for 2.6.25+ kernels. madwifi-svn-122109 # this module worked briefly (limited to 1M/s), but then died and despite a number of reinstalls will not configure properly. madwifi-ng_r3366+ar5007-1.4.src.rpm # always worked in the past madwifi-ng_r3366+ar5007-1.9.src.rpm # always worked... madwifi-r3725+AR5007EG-2.2.src.rpm # what I was running on before the 11.2 install madwifi-trunk+r3717-1.2.src.rpm # worked in the past... and I have one or two more around... I even got to the point I was making sure the kernel was 'properly prepared' and that 'all' remnants of the prior installs were removed from the module tree and unloaded by reboot. I would: make mrproper make cloneconfig make modules_prepare make clean in between the package installs. Two notes of interest. (1) the packages are never consistent between where they put the modules in the module tree under /lib/modules/2.6.25.20-0.5-default/.. Sometimes the modules go under ../net, sometimes under ../updates, sometimes under ../weak-updates, but until now it always worked. Second, under openSuSE, I have always had to use the 'ath_pci' module. No matter what, the ath5k driver has never worked -- period. That always seemed strange. Well I confirmed it was strange, because when I checked the module used by Arch Linux on this box, low-and-behold, it was using ath5k??? How does that happen? The errors are pretty much of the same flavor. After the driver is loaded, it complains that the chip doesn't respond: Dec 22 15:00:11 alchemy kernel: PCI: Enabling device 0000:17:00.0 (0000 -> 0002) Dec 22 15:00:11 alchemy kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:17:00.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19 Dec 22 15:00:11 alchemy kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:17:00.0 to 64 Dec 22 15:00:11 alchemy kernel: MadWifi: unable to attach hardware: 'Hardware didn't respond as expected' (HAL status 3) Dec 22 15:00:11 alchemy kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:17:00.0 disabled Dec 22 15:02:18 alchemy kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:17:00.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19 Dec 22 15:02:18 alchemy kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:17:00.0 to 64 Dec 22 15:02:18 alchemy kernel: ath5k_pci 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy1' Dec 22 15:02:19 alchemy kernel: ath5k phy1: failed to wakeup the MAC Chip Dec 22 15:02:19 alchemy kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:17:00.0 disabled Dec 22 15:02:19 alchemy kernel: ath5k_pci: probe of 0000:17:00.0 failed with error -5 dmesg: ath5k_pci 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy0' ath5k phy0: failed to resume the MAC Chip ath5k_pci: probe of 0000:17:00.0 failed with error -5 ath_hal: 0.9.18.0 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413) wlan: 0.9.4 ath_pci: 0.9.4 eth0: RTL8101e at 0xffffc2000065a000, 00:1b:38:af:36:b8, XID 34200000 IRQ 4348 Basically, I'm f'ing stumped... I don't see any logical reason why what has always worked on this box now refuses to work. I have probably uninstalled, confirmed the uninstall was complete, built, rebuilt, reinstalled until I'm blue in the face. My shortcoming here is that I know not what suse is doing with the module tree and how it is assigning modules/devices. From what I can tell the modules.alias handling of ath5k versus ath_pci may be an issue. In the past, I have always just blacklisted ath5k in /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist to prevent it from loading, but that doesn't work any more. I have attempted to insure that ath_pci is loaded before ath5k with MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT`as shown in http://en.opensuse.org/Kernel_module_configuration. Still doesn't help. I need the collective wisdom of the brain-trust to point out where I'm doing the stupid thing that I'm apparently doing repeatedly... (at least I'm consistent) What else would make sense to try or check here? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 12/22/2009 07:23 PM, David C. Rankin wrote:
Second, under openSuSE, I have always had to use the 'ath_pci' module. No matter what, the ath5k driver has never worked -- period. That always seemed strange. Well I confirmed it was strange, because when I checked the module used by Arch Linux on this box, low-and-behold, it was using ath5k??? How does that happen?
The errors are pretty much of the same flavor. After the driver is loaded, it complains that the chip doesn't respond:
Dec 22 15:00:11 alchemy kernel: PCI: Enabling device 0000:17:00.0 (0000 -> 0002) Dec 22 15:00:11 alchemy kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:17:00.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19 Dec 22 15:00:11 alchemy kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:17:00.0 to 64 Dec 22 15:00:11 alchemy kernel: MadWifi: unable to attach hardware: 'Hardware didn't respond as expected' (HAL status 3) Dec 22 15:00:11 alchemy kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:17:00.0 disabled Dec 22 15:02:18 alchemy kernel: ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:17:00.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19 Dec 22 15:02:18 alchemy kernel: PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:17:00.0 to 64 Dec 22 15:02:18 alchemy kernel: ath5k_pci 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy1' Dec 22 15:02:19 alchemy kernel: ath5k phy1: failed to wakeup the MAC Chip Dec 22 15:02:19 alchemy kernel: ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:17:00.0 disabled Dec 22 15:02:19 alchemy kernel: ath5k_pci: probe of 0000:17:00.0 failed with error -5
dmesg:
ath5k_pci 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy0' ath5k phy0: failed to resume the MAC Chip ath5k_pci: probe of 0000:17:00.0 failed with error -5 ath_hal: 0.9.18.0 (AR5210, AR5211, AR5212, RF5111, RF5112, RF2413, RF5413) wlan: 0.9.4 ath_pci: 0.9.4 eth0: RTL8101e at 0xffffc2000065a000, 00:1b:38:af:36:b8, XID 34200000 IRQ 4348
Here is an update and comparison that might help in figuring out what is going on. Currently I have my arch drive installed in this same laptop. Here is the config for madwifi that is working find on Arch: syslog: Dec 23 04:30:35 alchemy kernel: ath5k 0000:17:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19 Dec 23 04:30:35 alchemy kernel: ath5k 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy0' Dec 23 04:30:35 alchemy kernel: ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70) Dec 23 04:30:51 alchemy avahi-daemon[4161]: Joining mDNS multicast group on interface wlan0.IPv4 with address 192.168.6.102. Dec 23 04:30:51 alchemy avahi-daemon[4161]: New relevant interface wlan0.IPv4 for mDNS. Dec 23 04:30:51 alchemy avahi-daemon[4161]: Registering new address record for 192.168.6.102 on wlan0.IPv4. Dec 23 04:30:52 alchemy ntpd[4170]: Listen normally on 3 wlan0 192.168.6.102 UDP 123 Dec 23 04:30:53 alchemy avahi-daemon[4161]: Registering new address record for fe80::21b:9eff:fe7c:f6e7 on wlan0.*. Dec 23 04:30:54 alchemy ntpd[4170]: Listen normally on 7 wlan0 fe80::21b:9eff:fe7c:f6e7 UDP 123 dmesg: 18:25 alchemy:~> sudo dmesg | grep ath ath5k 0000:17:00.0: PCI INT A -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 19 ath5k 0000:17:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 ath5k 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy0' ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x64 ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00 ath: Regpair used: 0x64 ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70) ath5k phy0: unsupported jumbo ath5k phy0: unsupported jumbo ath5k phy0: unsupported jumbo madwifi-0.9.4 package: 18:24 alchemy:~> pacman -Q madwifi madwifi 0.9.4.4100-1 18:24 alchemy:~> pacman -Ql madwifi madwifi /lib/ madwifi /lib/modules/ madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/ madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/ madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/ madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/ madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/ madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/ madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/ath_hal.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/ath_pci.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/ath_rate_amrr.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/ath_rate_minstrel.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/ath_rate_onoe.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/ath_rate_sample.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/wlan.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/wlan_acl.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/wlan_ccmp.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/wlan_scan_ap.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/wlan_scan_sta.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/wlan_tkip.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/wlan_wep.ko madwifi /lib/modules/2.6.32-ARCH/kernel/drivers/net/wireless/madwifi/wlan_xauth.ko Why doesn't openSuSE activate the driver successfully in the manner that Arch does? I have looked at modinfo to see if there are any special module loading options being used in Arch, but there aren't any. Anybody got any suggestions? -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 12/23/2009 06:31 PM, David C. Rankin wrote:
On 12/22/2009 07:23 PM, David C. Rankin wrote:
Dec 22 15:02:18 alchemy kernel: ath5k_pci 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy1' Dec 22 15:02:19 alchemy kernel: ath5k phy1: failed to wakeup the MAC Chip
dmesg:
ath5k_pci 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy0' ath5k phy0: failed to resume the MAC Chip ath5k_pci: probe of 0000:17:00.0 failed with error -5
Here is an update and comparison that might help in figuring out what is going on. Currently I have my arch drive installed in this same laptop. Here is the config for madwifi that is working find on Arch:
syslog:
Dec 23 04:30:35 alchemy kernel: ath5k 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy0' Dec 23 04:30:35 alchemy kernel: ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)
dmesg:
ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)
I think we found the problem and it looks like a hardware recognition problem opensuse is having with the AR2525 chip on the wireless card. I have opened a bug report: https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=567137 In short the dmesg error from opensuse is: ath5k_pci 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy0' ath5k phy0: failed to resume the MAC Chip ath5k_pci: probe of 0000:17:00.0 failed with error -5 There is no recognigition of the AR2425 chip. Comparing, Arch Linux dmesg information shows the chip as: ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70) -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On 12/23/2009 07:10 PM, David C. Rankin wrote:
I think we found the problem and it looks like a hardware recognition problem opensuse is having with the AR2525 chip on the wireless card. I have opened a bug report:
https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=567137
In short the dmesg error from opensuse is:
ath5k_pci 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy0' ath5k phy0: failed to resume the MAC Chip ath5k_pci: probe of 0000:17:00.0 failed with error -5
There is no recognigition of the AR2425 chip. Comparing, Arch Linux dmesg information shows the chip as:
ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70)
I forgot to add: Anyone know how to fix this?? Is there a way to force opensuse to recognize the chip as the AR2425? I would just dump this install and start over with 11.0 and take the kernels sequentially from the original to the next, to the next to 2.6.25.20-0.5 which must force the retention of the correct ath5k information. This box worked fine with 11.0 and ath_pci from June 6, 08 until November when I dumped 11.0 for 11.2. However, I have got hours and gigs of tweaks in this install that I don't want to have to recreate. (Yes, fglrx is beautiful and my palmrest is coooooollll again.) -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
On Wed, Dec 23, 2009 at 8:24 PM, David C. Rankin <drankinatty@suddenlinkmail.com> wrote:
I forgot to add: Anyone know how to fix this?? Is there a way to force opensuse to recognize the chip as the AR2425? I would just dump this install and start over with 11.0 and take the kernels sequentially from the original to the next, to the next to 2.6.25.20-0.5 which must force the retention of the correct ath5k information. This box worked fine with 11.0 and ath_pci from June 6, 08 until November when I dumped 11.0 for 11.2. However, I have got hours and gigs of tweaks in this install that I don't want to have to recreate. (Yes, fglrx is beautiful and my palmrest is coooooollll again.)
I had this problem with a 24xx card. However, it was on ppc and it took a while to figure out. The problem is that the new ath5k driver only works with the 5xxx series chipsets. You have to compile the madwifi driver for the 2xxx cards. It's a problem with the driver that it falsely loads on the wrong hardware. You have to rmmod the ath5k driver and THEN modprobe with ath_pci I'm not sure about the current kernels, but I know that under 2.6.25, the ath5k driver sucks. I delete it from: /lib/modules/2.6.25-whatever/kernel/drivers/net/wireless I delete the entire ath5k directory If you have the update repo install in YaST it SHOULD update the driver when you update the kernel. Personally, I just recompile it with every update. On the 5xxx series, you can tell it's running ath5k because the lights on the card don't work right(at least on my card). When I notice that then I realize I have to recompile the driver. I don't have my 2xxx card anymore, but since they haven't updated the ath_pci driver in a while I don't see why it won't work. That driver couldn't be included in the kernel because the ath_hal module uses proprietary code IIRC. The ath5k is a clean driver but still under heavy development. Good luck -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
Larry Stotler wrote:
It's a problem with the driver that it falsely loads on the wrong hardware.
Thanks Larry. I had deleted the ath5k driver when I got your reply. Amazingly the problem is NOT an ath5k problem, the problem is an openSuSE ath5k problem. I'm currently using ath5k on this same box with Arch Linux and it works perfectly. I think I know what is wrong with suse's ath5k implementation...
You have to rmmod the ath5k driver and THEN modprobe with ath_pci
I'm not sure about the current kernels, but I know that under 2.6.25, the ath5k driver sucks. I delete it from:
/lib/modules/2.6.25-whatever/kernel/drivers/net/wireless
I delete the entire ath5k directory
That is the workaround. Basically, just: (1) 'find /lib/modules -name ath5k*' and then delete the ath5k directory. Yes with ath5k now part of the kernel, you have to 'delete' (or move) the ath5k module from the module tree to prevent it from loading before ath_pci. blacklisting ath5k has NO effect and will not prevent the module from loading. Even with: /etc/sysconfig/kernel -> MODULES_LOADED_ON_BOOT="ath_pci" the ath5k module will still load in front of the ath_pci module totally screwing your ability to configure your wireless card. (2) Unload all wireless modules: rmmod ath5k, rmmod ath_pci, rmmod ath_hal, rmmod wlan (3) as mentioned above modprobe -v ath_pci, and confirm ath_pci and ath_hal are loaded with 'lsmod | grep ath'. Then check the existence of wifi0 and ath0 with ifconfig and iwconfig. If the interfaces are not present, then reboot, do the same thing -- and then use yast -> network -> network devices and see if you are able 'edit' your wireless card and go to the hardware tab and choose "ath_pci" from the module drop-box. If you are unable to select ath_pci from the drop box, don't worry about trying to enter it by hand, it won't work. You still have problems.... (4) If you are using WPA encryption, then create your wpa_supplicant.conf with 'wpa_passwd "ath0" "your-secret-pwd"' The resulting wpa_supplicant.conf is created in your present directory. You will need to edit the file and add the ctrl_interface variable and then copy the file to /etc/wpa_supplicant/wpa_supplicant.conf. Your final wpa_supplicant.conf at minimum needs to look something like this: ctrl_interface=/var/run/wpa_supplicant network={ ssid="skyline" #psk="your-secret-pwd-in-ASCII" psk=65ed3df-your-secret-pwd-in-HEX-48ad3921aa7fd8ef6b6a329bf2c } (5) after configuring your wireless card, and wpa_supplicant, you will need to activate the interface as root with 'ifup ath0' which will load wpa_supplicant and call dhcpcd to obtain an IP address for your interface. THE OPENSUSE ATH5K PROBLEM The openSuSE ath5k implementation for Atheros AR2425 wireless cards is flat broken. There are two probably causes, with the latter being the most likely. First, the ath5k driver shipped with the 11.0 kernel could be just broken (I doubt it), or the /lib/modules/2.6.25.20-0.5-default/modules.alias file is more likely failing to correctly identify the wireless hardware resulting in the ath5k module failing to load properly on network activation. The dmesg signature of this problem on openSuSE is: ath5k_pci 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy0' ath5k phy0: failed to wakeup the MAC Chip ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:17:00.0 disabled ath5k_pci: probe of 0000:17:00.0 failed with error -5 While on Arch Linux ath5k works just fine on the same machine: ath5k 0000:17:00.0: registered as 'phy0' ath: EEPROM regdomain: 0x64 ath: EEPROM indicates we should expect a direct regpair map ath: Country alpha2 being used: 00 ath: Regpair used: 0x64 ath5k phy0: Atheros AR2425 chip found (MAC: 0xe2, PHY: 0x70) The most likely culprit is /lib/modules/2.6.25.20-0.5-default/modules.alias. The two file have completely different entries for ath5k and ath_pci. I suspect the one included with the 11.0 2.6.25.20-0.5 kernel is broken. SLOW TRANSFER ISSUE If you have removed ath5k and you have been able to configure and activate your wireless adapter, you are not out of the woods yet. For some reason the 0.9.4 ath_pci module from the opensuse madwifi repo, the module build from madwifi-project (svn) and the madwifi-project 0.9.4-1-current provide only 1/3 of the normal data transfer that you should expect. With any of the above ath_pci modules, throughput is limited to ~900K/s. That is way slower than the normal 3.3M/s. I kept trying sources and I was able to use the madwifi-r3725+AR5007EG-2.2 snapshot at full-speed. Hopefully this will help. Currently, the openSuSE madwifi driver for AR2425 cards is a mess. -- David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. Rankin Law Firm, PLLC 510 Ochiltree Street Nacogdoches, Texas 75961 Telephone: (936) 715-9333 Facsimile: (936) 715-9339 www.rankinlawfirm.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org
participants (2)
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David C. Rankin -
Larry Stotler